A case of Compulsory Retirement Ages and Age Discrimination has been considered this time in relation to Judges.

A Recorder (type of Judge) was Compulsory Retired at the age of 65 and sued for Age Discrimination in the Tribunal. The Ministry of Justice (his employer) said that the treatment was objectively justified on the basis that it was to enable younger Recorders to come up through the ranks and introduce new blood into the Judiciary.

Interestingly, the Tribunal has upheld the Recorder’s claim saying that new blood can be introduced to a Judiciary by Recorders becoming Judges freeing up spaces in this way.

This directly contradicts the case of a partner in a law firm who sued last week on the same grounds but lost. It underlines the point that each case of Age Discrimination is considered on its own facts and will or will not be discriminatory depending on the specific circumstances of the case.

In view of the particularly odd nature of this case it is probably too early to rush out and remove any reference to retirement age. Each case should be considered carefully in order to avoid lengthy litigation taking up valuable management time.